Supreme Court upholds life term for Bihar ex-MP

Former MP Anand Mohan Singh boards the prison van in Patna after being awarded the death sentence in connection with the lynching of the then DM of Gopalganj G. Krishnaiah. A photo of October 3, 2007.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of ex-MP Anand Mohan Singh in the 1994 murder case of Gopalganj District Magistrate G. Krishnaiah.

A bench headed by Justice A.K. Patnaik dismissed the plea of Singh, a gangster-turned-politician from Bihar, who had approached the Supreme Court against his conviction and life imprisonment in the murder case.

Singh, who was the leader of the then Bihar People’s Party (BPP), was accused of inciting a mob accompanying the cortege of a BPP leader to lynch Krishnaiah on December 5, 1994. The BPP is now defunct.

The officer was pulled out of a car, beaten up mercilessly and then shot dead.

Singh, a former MP from Sheohar, was awarded death sentence under Sections 302 (murder) and 109 (abetment of offence) of the Indian Penal Code by Additional District and Sessions Judge R.S. Rai on October 3, 2007.

However, the Patna High Court in its December 2008 verdict had commuted Singh’s death penalty to life sentence, against which he had moved the Supreme Court.